Gillian Anderson joins the debate about The Crown’s Fictional Disclaimer Argument

Gillian Anderson has played Margaret Thatcher in season four of The Crown. The show has recently been a part of media for sparking a debate about fact versus fiction. Royal editors and members of the UK government have called for a disclaimer, stating that the show isn’t exactly portraying historic events.

The dispute, which first began in November 2020 when UK cultural secretary Oliver Dowden, while speaking to Daily Mail, shared his fears about viewers misinterpreting events when watching the series.

“Without this [warning], I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact,” he told the newspaper.

Forer education secretary Damian Hind also spoke to Daily Mail saying that, “this is not some dramatization of a novel. It is based on the lives of real people and it relays many events people will recognize, so although it contains fiction, it certainly isn’t ‘pure’ fiction.”

Netflix responded to this by saying that it won’t be adding any forewarning as the show has “always been presented as a drama.”

On February 4, Anderson joined the debate by sharing her views on the matter. During an interview with InStyle, she said, “It’s so obvious that we’re doing a TV show and that these are characters based on real-life people. To me, it just felt like drama for the sake of drama. But I get that there are a lot of people invested.” She added, “There’s a lot of stuff that could have been written about — but was not — that is so much worse than what ended up in the show. There has been kindness extended in certain areas where it didn’t have to be.”

While it is still unclear whether Netflix will be changing their minds about the disclaimer in question, however, it seems unlikely.